An Interview With / Hypocrite in a Hippy Crypt

Hypocrite in a Hippy Crypt is somebody I’ve known ever since starting out as a music blogger. I remember he was the first person to submit their music and trust that I’d write something good about it, which filled me with a glee that still remains strong to this day. I’m very pleased to have him as our first guest on Sounds Good as we have An Interview With him! We talk about the past, record labels and more importantly HiiHC’s new single ‘New Friends’ which is set for release on November 4th. Check out the pre-order link to ‘New Friends’, and enjoy.

Hey Hypocrite in a Hippy Crypt, how’s it going? Pretty good. Living in California now days. Still writing and all that. Slowing down a little but still keeping my notebooks full.

It’s been a while since we last spoke, what you been up to? Since we last spoke I think I put out some songs on a few compilations. I have been doing a lot of work for the new single. Put out an album through a band called The Wailin’ Smithers. I’m also working on starting up another band called Weird Neighbours. We have about 7 songs now so hopefully that can keep going.

Can you tell us about your upcoming single ‘New Friends’? It’s a charming little acoustic tune with some great melodies. It’s a really unique and cool release in that the single sleeve is a literal post card you can send to people. All you need is a stamp. Comes with a bunch of other goodies too (stickers and buttons). I wanted to make a little fan package this time around.

You begin to introduce some new elements to your sound with New Friends featuring female vocals, keys and other instruments. Was this always the choice for the single or did it just happen naturally? The song is about 4-5 years old. When I wrote it I was in a very strange place. It deals with the confusion of love, religion, and a whole mess of other things. Already Dead (the label that is releasing it) brought the single Idea up last year and I figured it was a good song for it. An amazing artist named Katy Kirby had contacted me about her songs and we started talking and sharing ideas. I sent her the tracks and she did an amazing job with her vocals. Once I got her track back, I experimented a little and the keys and other instruments came naturally. It was great to create a song with a style I don’t normally do.

Is the more-layered approach something you’d look to include in future releases? I think so. With me the simplistic sound is honestly a lack of knowledge and time. I’m a songwriter, not a producer or recorder. My lo-fi sound is never intentional… it represents how poor of an artist I am in those sectors really.

You’ve had a pretty turbulent career so far with regards to getting the right support from record labels etc. Are things looking a little more stable nowadays? No. Never will be. I blew that chance a long time. I did a lot of stupid and immature things when I was starting and pissed off a lot of people who were trying to help me.

I also kind of blew it with my second album. I had multiple major labels tell me they were waiting to hear what I would follow up Tweaker in the park with. Apparently Tweaker Two missed the mark so nothing ever happened. It’s over for me now in that regard. But Already Dead has been really cool to me and I can release stuff when I please so that’s nice. It has turned into much more of a hobby that I attend to a few times a year. I have also been lucky enough to somehow get a small fan base in that my releases sell out pretty fast and people still keep in touch with me. I have achieved what I needed, I guess.

Should we expect to hear more from you this year? What’s next for Hypocrite in a Hippy Crypt? Touring, new material etc This year? No…I don’t think so. I have had a track list, several actually, for another album but… bringing that to life is pretty hard sometimes. I get asked to play shows every once in a while but I don’t know if many people would want to see me stand up there with a guitar.